Visualizing Romney's "Safety Net" For The Poor

Contributed by Michael Bloomer while locked in a closet by his beloved wife, Sue

In a fit of what can only be viewed as overconfidence after his win in the Florida primary last week, Mitt Romney accidentally told the truth on CNN the day after his win. His signal - in every sense of the word - quote:

"I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I'll fix it."

The simple fact is, of course, that Governor Romney has endorsed draconian budget cuts that would rip that net to shreds. He also spent a great deal of time at Bain Capital as a financial finagler hatching deals that fairly often added to the "very poor" population.

In his remarkable quote, too, he demonstrates what everyone on the left has known all along, and what even the right wing of the GOP is now realizing:  Mitt Romney believes that the "safety net" is a good enough place to be. He simply has no informed sense that life in the safety net is desperate, heartbreaking, and usually inescapable. In this, Romney is aristocratically tempered;  he's not merely tone deaf, he's stone deaf. Stone deaf to nearly 20% of the population is not a good characteristic in a United States President, particularly as we move ever closer to the edge of a revolutionary precipice.

Romney, though, is utterly astounding, in a very bad way. He's banal. Unlike Newt, there's, nothing fancy about him, nothing Gingrichian in rabidness. Unlike Paul or Santorum, Mitt's boring about the poverty thing, he simply cannot think "poor," cannot will up legitimate or sincere concern.

Wondering about that attribute the other day, I put together my image of what Romney - and the other GOP candidates - might actually conceive as a laissez faire "safety net." Gazing through the lens of their dog eat dog world view, it's a dark image indeed.